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Our pathological and biochemical studies show that PrPSc is deposited in the neuroepithelium of the olfactory mucosa in patients with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, indicating that olfactory biopsy may provide diagnostic information in living patients. The olfactory pathway may represent a route of infection and a means of spreading prions.

A case-control study on risk factors for cerebral tumors was conducted on an adult Italian population by the four Neurosurgical Departments of the Veneto Region, i.e. Padua, Treviso, Verona and Vicenza. The study recruited 195 cases of histologically-confirmed cerebral glioma. One hospital control was selected for each case. Cases and controls were matched for age, sex, data of hospitalization and residence. Information on both cases and controls was obtained from a relative. Uninvolved interviewers administered a structured questionnaire including items on the subject's education, occupation, lifestyle, medical history, exposure to radiation for diagnosis or therapy, head trauma and blood group and the medical history of family members. The series of cerebral tumors was first considered as an indistinct set: none of the risk factors examined showed a statistically significant association. A positive association was found with blood group A (OR = 6) when low-grade astrocytomas (n = 41) were considered separately. As for the malignant astrocytomas (n = 132), there was a suggestive but not statistically significant association with the presence of CNS tumors among first- and second-degree relatives (OR = 7.0). On the whole, this study yielded no clear and meaningful association for the various risk factors analyzed.

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In this paper, a procedure for the evaluation of the interaction between existing buildings and urban roadway networks after a seismic event is proposed. This question is relevant in historical urban centres, where urbanisation typology has evidenced, in the past, lack of road networks’ residual connectivity in post-earthquake conditions. The present study proposes a method for the evaluation of the residual functionality in urban context, moving from the execution of building surveys, the application of probabilistic concepts and fuzzy logic with the aim to define probable urban road network damage scenarios. The methodology is applied to the Municipality of Conegliano (northeastern Italy) evaluating the potential seismic damage scenario to the historical urban centre and highlighting criticisms in the post-earthquake rescue operations

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METHODS. Fifty-six RESULTS. All 56 patients were evaluated for time to progression (TTP) and median survival time (MST). The TTP was 7.5 months and the MST was 12.5 months. 2 Department of Radiotherapy, Azienda OspedaToxicity manifested as thrombocytopenia and in most cases was acceptable. Four liera, Padova, Italy. patients (7.1%) had radiation necrosis at 2, 2, 7, and 9 months, respectively, from 3 Department of Neurosurgery, Azienda Ospedathe end of radiotherapy. liera, Padova, Italy. CONCLUSIONS.The results obtained in the current study with concurrent radioche-4 Department of Neurological Sciences, Azienda motherapy in patients with glioblastoma are comparable to the best results reOspedaliera, Padova, Italy. ported using radiotherapy alone followed by chemotherapy with nitrosoureas. and chemotherapy has done little to improve on these results.

Neural transplantation is a promising therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative diseases; however, many patients receiving intracerebral fetal allografts exhibit signs of immunization to donor antigens that could compromise the graft. In this context, we intracerebrally transplanted mesencephalic pig xenografts into primates to identify a suitable strategy to enable long-term cell survival, maturation, and differentiation. Parkinsonian primates received WT or CTLA4-Ig transgenic porcine xenografts and different durations of peripheral immunosuppression to test whether systemic plus graft-mediated local immunosuppression might avoid rejection. A striking recovery of spontaneous locomotion was observed in primates receiving systemic plus local immunosuppression for 6 mo. Recovery was associated with restoration of dopaminergic activity detected both by positron emission tomography imaging and histological examination. Local infiltration by T cells and CD80/86+ microglial cells expressing indoleamine 2,3-dioxigenase were observed only in CTLA4-Ig recipients. Results suggest that in this primate neurotransplantation model, peripheral immunosuppression is indispensable to achieve the long-term survival of porcine neuronal xenografts that is required to study the beneficial immunomodulatory effect of local blockade of T cell costimulation. Abbreviations: ( 18